JOURNAL 



OP THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL. 



Part II.— NATURAL SCIENCE. 

 Nos. II, III & IV.— 1883. 



V. — On new and little-known Wao^dlocer^ from the Indian region. 



By Lioi^EL DE Nice'ville. 



[Received and read the 7th March, 1883.] 



[With Plates I, IX and X.] 



Family NYMPHALID^. 

 Subfamily Ntmphalin^. 

 1. Hestina zella. (Plate I, fig. 2, ? .) 

 Hestina zella, Butler, Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1869, p. 9 (with a woodcut), male ; 

 id., Moore, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1882, p. 240. 



Mr. Butler in describing the male of this species, but not knowing the 

 exact locality from whence it was obtained, stated that " it is remarkable 

 as being an excellent mimic of Danais juventa, a widely distributed and 

 tolerably common East Indian and Oceanic species." Danais (Badena) 

 juventa is certainly superficially very similar in markings to H. zella, but 

 according to present knowledge it does not occur in the N.-W. Himalayas, 

 being in fact confined to the islands of Java, Lombock and Billiton as far 

 as I am aware. Nor is there any other common Danais occurring in the 

 same region as H. zella that it could mimic, except it be Z). limniace. It 

 at once struck me when capturing the female here figured on the forest-clad 

 road between Chumba and Kujiah on the 22nd May, 1879, that it was an 

 excellent mimic both in the slow and sailing mode of its flight and 

 in general appearance of Metaporia caphusa, Moore (Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 

 1872, p. 564), which is an exceedingly common butterfly in the Spring 

 in many parts of the outer N.-W. Himalayas, and is doubtless a protected 

 species. It is more probable that our H. zella mimics the Fieris rather 

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